Our little road trip to IF

 Jr Hitting Dash with his blanket, pretty good shot too I must say!

 Kids all filed out the door and onto the lawn after a tiring drive home!

 Danny boy just loves the puppy!

 Kids goofing around and daddy wanting to get serious help of unloading the trailer!

 little sissy's new face that she makes

We just love that cute chubby face, we all fight over her and smoosh those cute cheekies!

We had a great little get away this weekend! We went and stayed at our new home that we are renting in IF. It is a fun area, we have the bishop who lives right next door to us and he is famous, he's the channel 8 news guy and everyone in IF knows who he is. He's a nice guy, invited Dash to go hit some balls with he and his son. Then the kids are lovin' the fact that there's a park with a volleyball net right behind our house and that there's a gate to go to it from our yard, so they were out there until 10:00 at night playing badmiten.  Then around the corner from our new house there's an even bigger park with tennis courts and rolling hills perfect for sledding on and one really big hill that my kids are super excited for it to snow so that they could go down it!  There are Kids there age that live right around the corner or accross the street. Then we got to go to our new ward. It was in an older building which reminded us of Washington. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop!! It was really nice! It reminded us of our old ward back in Washington, with only fifty active children in primary, yeah, which is different for us because we are use to almost 200 active children in primary! But it has a large youth group which my older kids are super excited about. The sacrament meeting was wonderful, the bishop had all the graduating seniors get up to bear their testimonies and share what they have learned and what advise they would give to the younger teenagers. It was awesome and their testimonies were amazing and my kids all listened and even they felt the spirit, it was so great! They had five seniors graduating which is a lot for one small ward. The kids are so excited to move they all didn't want to go back home. I think it's weird how excited they are, but we are happy that they are happy!  The puppy loved it too with all the walks that we took her on and all the green grassy fields that she gets to roam around on. I think we are all looking forward to some good change. 

Squeeze them and hold them tight!!

Today my thoughts and feelings have been with a family that I knew back in Washington and it has made me appreciate and kiss and squeeze my husband and children just a little bit more.  Today my thoughts and feeling are with you Dacia and I want you to know that I am praying for you and hope that you and your family will find peace in your hearts during this hard time. I know that home in heaven seems so far away and Satan would have us to believe it is so but it's right here and the saints who have passed on are administering angels who are here helping us get through this life each and every day. I wish I could give you a hug to let you know that my heart goes out to you but just know through this message that it's a hug through words. You have a strong husband who will help get you through this along with your Heavenly Father and Heath. This is a picture of those administering angels, This is my favorite picture of all time. To me it depicts the strength and the knowledge that they have of how vital it is to help and to protect those who are striving to do that which is right and to talk to anyone who's "Light" is on.  Our love and prayers go out to you and your family.

I'm a nursery kid Now!

 I let Danny boy feed himself!

Danny boy is now officially in Nursery!! It's heaven having to take care of only one baby, it's been hard taking care of two for the last five months. Of course it happens when Sloane gets released from Bishop bric. Yes, Sloane has been released from the bishop bric, it was bitter sweet for me. Sloane had a hard time keeping the tears back all during sacrament until he gave his testimony. We have both grown a lot from that calling. I feel like it's been a family calling not just his calling. He's been in that calling for three years, I can't believe it's been that long! I will miss watching his face when people get up to speak, it was both touching and entertaining and his I Love you (Wink);) to me. He at least got to pay attention, sitting by us....not so much. As soon as he got done bearing his testimony....the suit coat came off....and he was taking kids out who were being noisy....easy transition in our church....I love it!

Our new addition to our family...

Our new Yellow Lab.  Her name is Lucy and we love her! Yes, we are crazy but we have 8 kids so we are already crazy right? She is six weeks old and crate trained, she yelps if she needs to go out. She's super loving and cuddly.

Wicked!!

 What a wonderful mother's day weekend I had!! Beautiful flowers from my Honey, Lots of hommade gifts from my wonderful kiddios! A New Puppy! Yes, I already know we are crazy...and 

WICKED!! We went with our good friends the Guthries to see Wicked, It was wonderful, we loved it! 

Too fun! Thanks honey for making this one of the best mother's day weekend ever!

An update on JR....

A few weeks ago I felt impressed to bear my testimony on the progress that my children have made since we've lived here. I talked mainly about JR because he's the one I am most concerned about progressing because of his disabilities and such. When he was younger I had the strong impression that he need some extra help, speech, ect. We had someone come out once every other week for about a year to our home and work on speech and occupational therapy. Then when he turned three he qualified for preschool (this was harder on me than him) and it has done wonders for him. He has a preschool teacher whom I absolutely love, I really feel like there are people on this earth who have gifts. His preschool teacher has a gift of working with these kinds of children. She noticed that he didn't transition well at all so she made him his own chart and worked with him on it, she told me that it makes him feel empowered and it does! He also couldn't for the longest time think of things on his own and would just whine and fuss so we would have to guess, this was real frustrating for all of us. Now he can tell us what he wants and sometimes get it himself. Just a few weeks ago he was getting on the bus and he was sitting by the window closest to me and he waved with the I LOVE YOU sign on his hand. Of course this made me cry and thank my Heavenly Father for the guidance I have received in helping JR. He has trully made great progress!

Sissy says, "Happy Easter!"

 Don't you just love her ruffly new pants?

We had a great Stake conf. This weekend. It was broadcasted from Salt Lake for all of Western Idaho. Utendorf spoke, Worthlin spoke, The general primary pres. spoke and Elder Neilson from the seventy spoke. From last nights talks and the talks that were given today, the theme seemed to me was about parenting and it was so great the messages that were given. Our stake pres. his talk last night was excellent! He gave a wonderful story about how we should be careful not to judge others and their hard kids that they get to raise. He said instead we should look at them and think to yourself, "God must have thought you would be good parents because he gave you hard kids to raise." I hope that's what he thinks because, We have Wonderfully HARD kids!! They are all wonderful and hard at the same time. We love them and are frustrated and bewildered about what to do sometimes, but with the Lords help we have come out of some hairy stuff triumphant! You'd think that just giving us eight children would be enough! Nope we get the interesting life that keeps us on our toes daily, and wouldn't change it for anything because now I know that this is how I get my growth.